Connecticut and the nation continue to make progress in reducing the number of high schools stuck with the title "dropout factories," but neither is of out the woods yet, according to a study released Monday.

Even though Connecticut has managed to reduce the number of high schools where fewer than 60 percent of high school freshmen make it to senior year -- from 13 in 2002 to four in 2010 -- its four-year graduation rate during that same period has declined from 79.7 percent to 75.4 percent. As such, it is among states labeled as a "challenge" by authors of the report.

The report, "Building a Grad Nation," is the joint work of Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education, and draws on research and analysis from John Hopkins University. In the report, researchers found that there were 457 fewer "dropout factories" -- or high schools where 60 percent or fewer students graduate -- in 2010 than in 2002, a 23 percent decline. There were 1,550 in 2010, down from 2,007 in 2002. As a result, 790,000 fewer students attended dropout factories in 2010 than 2002.

"The good news is that some states have made improvements in their graduation rates, showing it can be done," said Robert Balfanz, a co-author of the report and director of Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

This year, the report does not identify which high schools are dropout factories. A similar report, issued in 2007, pinned both Bassick and Harding high schools with the title and led the city school board to convene a task force to study the issue. The group ended up focusing on how state grant dollars were being spent to address the dropout issue.

For the class of 2008, the latest figures available from the state, Bassick lost 31.5 percent of its population by senior year and Harding, 17 percent.

Colleen Wilber, a spokeswoman for America's Promise, said the group wants to raise the four-year graduation rate to 90 percent across the nation by 2020. She acknowledged that as more students are kept from dropping out, the percentage of students who graduate on time may be compromised. Several states, however, are managing to make progress, including New York, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Combined, these states added nearly 109,000 additional graduates in 2009. At the same time, New York, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee were also among states with the biggest declines in dropout factories.

Connecticut was among 10 states that saw declines in their on-time graduation rates. Wilber said the decline in the overall student population in Connecticut was not a factor. Only one state, Wisconsin, has a graduation rate of 90 percent.

"In large part, the battle will be won or lost in the states that have the largest number of students to get back on track to graduate and need to accelerate their progress two to three-fold in order to reach 90 percent high school graduation rates by 2020," said John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises and another co-author of the report.

In Connecticut, many of the efforts to reduce dropouts and increase the dropout rate are tied to getting more students prepared for high school work. In Bridgeport, for instance, many students arrive at high school unable to read at grade level, get frustrated and leave. In a five-year district improvement plan unveiled two weeks ago, Interim Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas pledged to start working intensively with eighth-graders as soon as state testing is complete this month, to help better prepare them for high school.